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Dewey Decimal System

In 1876 Melvil Dewey attempted to organized all human knowledge into 10 big, very general categories. His plan was to find a way to put all the books that covered the same topic together on the library shelves.

Step 1:

He assigned each of these categories a number from 000 to 900. Books were assigned a number for a category based on their content.

Number

Category

Examples of the content

000

General Works

Encyclopedias. computers, mysterious events

100

Philosophy

Psychology, parapsychology, witchcraft, dreams

200

Religion

World religions, Christianity, Judaism, mythology

300

Social Sciences

Immigration, social problems, government, folk tales

400

Language

Foreign languages, origin of language, codes

500

Pure Sciences

Mathematics, biology, chemistry, weather

600

Technology

Medicine, cooking, inventions, flight

700

Fine Arts

Painting, music, dance, games, sports

800

Literature

Poetry, drama, humor, Shakespeare

900

History and Geography

Atlases, world history, countries of the world

Step 2:

Dewey then divided each of these topics in 9 more specific categories. He used a more precise number to identify the smaller categories. This made 100 possible categories. For example:

Number

General Category

700

Fine arts

710

Civic art & landscaping

720

Architecture

730

Sculpture

740

Drawing

750

Painting

760

Graphic arts

770

Photography

780

Music & dance

790

Sports & recreation

Step 3:

Dewey then divided each of these smaller topics into 9 more specific categories. He used an even more precise number to identify the even smaller categories. This made 1000 possible categories. For example:

Number

General Category

790

Sports & recreation

791

Public performances

792

Stage presentations

793

Indoor games & amusements

794

Indoor games of skill

795

Games of chance

796

Athletic & outdoor sports & games

797

Aquatic & air sports

798

Equestrian sports, animal racing

799

Fishing, hunting, shooting

Next => Now that you understand how the Dewey Decimal system works, it it is time to learn how to locate a book on the library shelf.